Two Slashes

To start, I’d just like to point out that it’s almost guaranteed that I’m not alone in writing an opinionated piece on the new Plurk service, but I figured it was at least worth commenting about, especially when you take into account the contents of my previous post on Twitter.  Even more interesting is that a great majority of the discussion on Twitter in the past day or so is “Plurk is good/bad/in need of help/”.

I decided to give Plurk a try for myself and see what, if anything, set it apart from my now-established Twitter account, or similar alternatives like Pownce or Jaiku.  And to be frank, I don’t think there’s too much going for it; just about everything Plurk has developed concept-wise can be replicated with the Twitter API and a few lines of code.

Your “home” page is taken up mostly by a large horizontal timeline showing recent ‘plurks’ (even more obnoxious than ‘tweets,’ I realize) made by anyone you’re following updates from.  Unlike Twitter, there are two stages of followers, fans and friends.  Fans get the updates posted by that other person, but without the harassment of a ‘Can I be your friend?’ e-mail.  Friends, of course, is self-explanatory.  The timeline is supposed to be ‘realtime’ in that you can click a plurk and see all of the responses…but for all that effort, Plurk pops up a small notification box that there are new replies and plurks for you to look at rather than just adding them.  (Why not just add them and color-code them according to freshness from the last page reload?)  The timeline is also poorly-responsive; it takes a few seconds to scroll over on my machine, and no doubt it will be even slower as people and plurks add up.

One of Plurk’s minor benefits is that they follow the unwritten “microblogger” rule – that is, 140 words maximum – but you can use one of their ‘predefined’ verbs to save a few characters and make sure the verb gets a colorful highlight.  Of course, this only helps if you find yourself constantly nearing the edge and looking for any way to get your character count down, or if you can be bothered to navigate the menu with your mouse.  Plurk’s commenting system threads the responses together, at least, to make for some slight semblance of organization without all the click-throughs (Twitterers, meet Quotably), which makes it a tiny bit more organized.  But this also means you fall out of the conversation entirely if you aren’t following the initial poster.

Plurk also finds a major shortcoming in the way some of the site features (well, not even features, just extra smiley faces and the like) are locked until you establish your presence on Plurk by way of the Plurk Karma system.  Essentially, Plurk will analyze your participation once a day, and assign you a value from 0 to 100 based upon your interactions with the site and other users.  Making new friends or posts, or even uploading a profile picture all affect your Karma score.  Now, it’s an interesting way of getting people involved, but when it requires you to post nearly constantly to change the Plurk logo (yes, logo), I think it’s safe to say that there’s too little thought put into it.  Emoticons aren’t a big reason people are going to stick around…

Plurk also lacks an API and any semblance of SMS support (for the moment, at least), which means that you have to keep the page open or sign up your IM account (thankfully, they at least offer more than Google Talk).  And speaking of IMs, any updates to the timeline also get IMed to you, including responses from people you’ve never met, so if you’re following anyone who gets a lot of attention, your IM client will be getting a bit of attention too.  You can turn them off with off and on commands, post plurks, and respond to the nine or ten most recent comments on other plurks, but there’s really no use otherwise.

I’m sorry, but a headless dog does not a microblogging site make.  Plurk, it’s a great shot…but you’re going to need to offer something that can’t be replicated in thirty seconds on Twitter.  Oh, and lose the comment about emo-ness on your homepage.  Emos never share their emoness.

In the meantime, you’re welcome to befriend me on Plurk, but don’t expect any activity until (updated as of June 3) as Plurk has joined Twitter and Pownce at Ping.fm or some other multi-updater.

Alright, the emo joke might be a bit over the top, but I’m not the only one.  There are plenty of tweets about it, if only I hadn’t lost the URLs.

I think it’s been somewhere around two or three weeks since I got my Twitter account.  And since then, I’ve either found that people already have an account and are more than happy to follow me (especially the fine folk in #hak5…), or they don’t (most commonly because they don’t have a clue what it is or see a point).

So perhaps it’s within reason for me to clarify A) what Twitter is and B) why, even though it’s intended to show off what you’re doing, it’s nothing to do with your typical social networking status.

So, first things, first…what is Twitter?  In the service’s own words:

What is it?
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!

While this might be the “official” response, I think it’s a little skewed from what actually goes on “inside the club”.  If I had to write their blurb, it would probably read something more like this:

What is it?
Twitter allows groups of interconnected individuals to share their thoughts, actions, discoveries, and other [Internet-based] content they might find interesting.  The uses of Twitter extend from the occasional mini-blog post to a more flexible and involving alternative to RSS feeds, to even providing a platform for publicly-interactive applications.

(I know, I should be their press writer.)  Anyway, most of the outsiders (like Justin here) see the post field (with the 140-character limit), the extensive lists of previous posts (called “tweets” in Twitterese), and the equivalent to “friending” someone and instantly see it as a glorified Facebook status.  While that may be what the original intention was, the platform has quickly expanded into a monster of its own.

Perhaps what sets Twitter apart from my usual definition of statuses is that it has become more interactive, more like an ongoing, open-air conversation.  For example, the public timeline is like walking through a crowded room and catching glimpses of conversations.  Naturally, something’s going to pique your interest at some point, and it’s then and there that you can investigate further.  Yes, there are the people who announce that they’re going to pilates, but you also get a group of people who respond to each other.  Did you just share a link?  Well, perhaps @someone found it useful and has a recommendation for you too.

When you compare the two, MySpace, Facebook, and the other typical networks are all about drawing your circle in the sand, and inviting all of your friends to step inside; if you’re not in the circle, you’re not worth listening to and your opinions are irrelevant.  Twitter, Jaiku, and some of the other alternatives erase that circle; yes, you can surround yourself with your friends, but at the end of the day, there are plenty of other (usually friendly) people who can hear you…and you can hear them too.

And I didn’t even get into the expandability aspect yet.  Sure, Facebook lets you update via text message, but I haven’t seen any really interesting applications that integrate so nicely as some of the Twitter applications do.  Seriously, will Facebook let you know about your packages?  And some people find it a rather adaptable alternative to RSS feeds; no reader (or associated configuration) required, it’s accessible anywhere you are, and you still get the notifications about what’s new at your favorite site you’re looking for.  (If you’re a Twitter user, you might have noticed that sometimes I plug TechCentric or my new posts from here…same idea.)

You can blame Web 2.0 for even coming up with an idea along the lines of Twitter.  But even if the idea isn’t catchy to you, apparently it was to the bigwigs considered to be the forefront of all things tech, like Leo Laporte or Kevin Rose, or any of the newer media faces.  And you know what mob mentality is like…

Unfortunately, even I think I sound like a raving lunatic.  Call it my effort to make myself universally accessible, whatever you like, but I really recommend that you at least try it out.  The service is free, and if anything else…you can follow me.